Paul Boutilier Dies at 63 After NHL Career and 1983 Cup
Paul Boutilier has died at 63, ending the life of a former NHL defenseman whose career reached the league, the playoffs and the 1983 Stanley Cup champion New York Islanders. The announcement came through the NHL’s Alumni Association.
He played for the New York Islanders, Boston Bruins, Minnesota North Stars, New York Rangers and Winnipeg Jets, and finished with 27 goals and 110 points in 288 NHL games. His name remained tied to that Islanders run because he was part of the last New York team to win the Stanley Cup.
Islanders draft pick
New York selected Boutilier with the 21st overall pick in the 1981 NHL Draft after his QMJHL season with the Sherbrooke Castors. He had scored 10 goals and 39 points in 72 games that year, then added three goals and 10 points in 14 postseason games.
Boutilier reached the NHL in the 1981-82 season and became a full-time player in New York in the 1982-83 season. By the 1983-84 through 1985-86 stretch, he had produced 16 goals and 80 points in 183 games for the Islanders with a plus-14 rating.
1983 Islanders run
The 1983 championship remained the top line on his resume. Boutilier won a Stanley Cup ring from that title team, and in the 1984-85 season he ranked as the Islanders’ third-highest scoring defenseman behind Denis Potvin and Tomas Jonsson.
That scoring run was followed by a late-career stretch that looked different. Over his last three years, he skated for four different organizations and posted seven goals and 21 points in 75 games with a minus-4 rating.
Coaching after the NHL
After retiring following the 1990-91 season and two years with SC Bern in the NLA, Boutilier moved into coaching. He worked for several years as an assistant at St. Mary’s University and Dalhousie University, spent one year as a development coach with the Nashville Predators, and most recently served this past season with the QMJHL’s Montcon Wildcats and Québec Remparts.
Paul Boutilier leaves behind a career that stretched from the 1981 NHL Draft to junior hockey benches in Canada. For the Islanders, the sharpest line is still the simplest one: he was part of their last Stanley Cup team, and that 1983 ring now stands as a final piece of a 288-game NHL career.
